Summary

The mission of the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) is to reduce poverty among local families and individuals while working to counteract, and whenever possible eliminate, the societal conditions that cause and perpetuate poverty.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) is to reduce poverty among local families and individuals while working to counteract, and whenever possible eliminate, the societal conditions that cause and perpetuate poverty.

Revenue vs. Expense ($000s)

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Overview

Mission Statement

The mission of the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) is to reduce poverty among local families and individuals while working to counteract, and whenever possible eliminate, the societal conditions that cause and perpetuate poverty.

Background Statement

The Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) is this city's legally designated anti-poverty agency. After an early history of joint agencies, a group of Somerville citizens founded CAAS as an independent organization in 1981. In 1982, the Head Start program serving Somerville became a department of CAAS. (CAAS Head Start became a two-city program when it began serving Cambridge children and families in 2007.)

The motto of CAAS in its early years was "People achieving more by working together." Since its inception, CAAS has helped people in Somerville keep their homes and worked to preserve affordable housing in the city. From 1987 to 1990, CAAS sent community organizers to the Clarendon Hill Towers, helping residents prevent the developer from raising their rents when federal subsidies expired. Today, the tenants' association that CAAS helped establish owns the Towers. CAAS added an Eviction Prevention Project in the 1990's that is still the core of its Homelessness Prevention Program. Most recently, CAAS' community organizers from our Community Organizing and Advocacy Program helped the residents of North Street public housing project form a tenants' association and negotiate a Relocation Agreement with the Somerville Housing Authority and the team of private developers formed to demolish and rebuild their homes as a mixed-income housing project. This effort successfully preserved the tenants' right to return to the newly-built homes while ensuring that their children could remain in the Somerville school system during construction, among other important rights.

Throughout the 1980's, CAAS helped Somerville change and welcome new immigrants. A rapid response network responded to incidents of ethnic and racial discrimination as they occurred. The Haitian Coalition began as a program at CAAS before becoming independent in 1992. CAAS also diversified its own staff. A youth group, Jovenes Latinos, developed the Latino leaders of the next generation from 1992 to 2010. Currently, the majority of CAAS employees speak more than one language, and CAAS conducts its business in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole, and other languages as needed. CAAS also participates in the city's current rapid response network, revived to respond to the crisis facing immigrants brought on by the current administration in Washington.

CAAS runs the Head Start program in Somerville and Cambridge. We assist families and individuals to keep their homes and prevent homelessness. We work with Somerville residents to obtain the help they need to escape poverty and become economically self-sufficient.

CAAS is an agile and adaptive agency, able to respond quickly in the policy realm. When a wave of foreclosure threatened to make renters homeless, CAAS helped them find their voice and make powerful people listen. When the Great Recession began in 2008, and economic stimulus funds became available to Somerville in 2009, CAAS created new programs to give money and support to families who needed both. CAAS continues to identify community needs as they emerge and coordinate the community's response to meet the needs as they arise.

Impact Statement

In October 2010 - September 2011, CAAS served nearly 1000 low-income families including over 3,000 men, women, and children :

Provided comprehensive early education and care and medical and developmental screening to 364 children from low-income families in Somerville and Cambridge.

Helped 170 households to apply for SNAP (food stamps) and 78 to apply for fuel assistance.

Conducted a community needs assessment and created a strategic plan to guide CAAS program, administration, and organizational development in FY 2011-2014. Every six months, the Board of Directors will review progress toward the goals set out in this plan.

Worked in partnership with more than 120 community organizations and government agencies to serve the people of Somerville and Cambridge.

Provide ongoing follow-up and case management for six months to 125 households.

Train early education teachers to improve their lesson planning, classroom management, individualized education plans for students, and written reporting, especially for bilingual teachers whose first language is not English.

Celebrate CAAS' 30th Anniversary, raising the visibility of the organization and $20,000 in unrestricted funds.

Carry out an ambitious development plan aimed at raising another $135,000 from private donors, foundations, corporations, and new government grants.

Needs Statement

CAAS has a strong management team and Board, with many dedicated volunteers. However, most of our funding comes from the Federal government and is restricted to particular programs or to serving individuals with household incomes below 125% of the Federal poverty line. About 20% of Somerville’s population falls into this very low income category, but another 30% have household incomes above that line (and are thus shut out of many Federal and state benefits) but well below what it costs to live here (according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator). The agency's most pressing need is for funding to serve a) very low income individuals with programs not allowed by current Federal funding and b) low income individuals who have “fallen off the benefits cliff”. CAAS has piloted several programs and proven them successful in Somerville. Among our specific needs are:

Case management for homelessness prevention. $180,000 for case managers who speak Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole (plus English) to help families close the gap between what they have and what they need to remain housed.

Medical-Legal Partnership. $85,000 for staff attorney to train community health centers to refer health problems caused by housing or poverty for legal or social services at CAAS.

CEO Statement

What difference does it make when you support CAAS? From my own life story, I can tell you that it makes all the difference in the world.

My father was a Presbyterian minister; service was his entire life, and I grew up with the constant presence of that ideal. In addition to the usual duties of a parish minister, I can remember him baking loaf after loaf of fresh bread in the church kitchen; the bread was sold to raise money for hunger relief efforts. When I was a teenager he started and ran a non-profit counseling center in Lowell, Massachusetts, providing essential mental health services to low-income and immigrant families, for over 10 years.

So I grew up with daily stories of the struggles of the families he worked with. Little did I know that years later I’d be doing essentially the same work. I wish I could say that the problems I saw growing up in Lowell are no longer daily realities for families in Somerville, but that just isn’t the case. Nearly 12,000 of our neighbors live below the Federal poverty line (for 2018, $25,100 pre-tax income for a family of four); with the rising cost of living in our city, thousands more, while not technically “in poverty”, are struggling every day to make ends meet.

As a Community Action Agency, it is the role of CAAS to be the hub, to make the connections between low-income families and the people and agencies that provide the necessities of life. We make it easier for people to set their sights on a better future. As one young mother of children in our Head Start program says, “Even if [CAAS] cannot help you [themselves], they will find the resource somehow.”

Among the resources we provide are:

• Food and Fuel. CAAS helps people navigate the food stamp and fuel assistance bureaucracies, assisting in the application and, if necessary, appeals processes. Instruction in healthy eating and menu creation is also provided by a certified nutritionist through our Head Start program.

• Preschool Programs. In Somerville and Cambridge, over 275 children each year enroll in CAAS Head Start, a high-quality program that prepares them to succeed in school and beyond.

• Health care. CAAS works closely with the Cambridge Health Alliance to make sure families get medical attention at community health centers like Broadway Health Center.

• Homelessness prevention services. CAAS works with individuals and families in danger of losing their home, providing a wide variety of supports that can stabilize a family’s housing situation.

Help us continue to be there for our neighbors here in Somerville. Your donation will help a family, and it will help CAAS end poverty where we live.

Gratefully,

David Gibbs, Executive Director

Board Chair Statement

Somerville is a city faced with great opportunities and profound challenges. Given its reputation as a diverse, progressive, and “hip” community, as well as its proximity to downtown Boston, local universities, and the coming Green Line Extension, Somerville has become a highly desirable place to live. While this popularity has resulted in increased investment in the city, it has also contributed to growing income inequality and the marginalization and displacement of lower-income residents who can no longer afford to live here. While close to 40% of Somerville households have annual incomes above $100,000, 13% of the city’s residents – including 20% of children – still live in poverty.

That’s where the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) comes in.

For over 35 years, CAAS has provided critical resources and support to Somerville’s most vulnerable residents. Today, CAAS helps its low-income neighbors with two of their most pressing needs: affordable preschool and eviction prevention. Our dedicated Head Start staff work tirelessly to ensure that the children they serve in Somerville and Cambridge are ready to thrive in kindergarten and beyond. Meanwhile, they set the entire family up for success by providing supportive services, workshops, and leadership development opportunities to parents and guardians. In fact, many of our Head Start staff members are former Head Start parents. As rents continue to skyrocket in Somerville, CAAS’s Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP) has become more needed than ever. Our HPP advocates are incredibly resourceful as they work with families and individuals who are at risk of losing their homes. Thanks to their efforts, many of our

neighbors have been able to remain in the city we all love.

I feel so fortunate to call Somerville home and even more fortunate for the opportunity to serve on CAAS’s Board of Directors. On behalf of the organization, I invite you to join us in our mission to end poverty where we live.

Organization Categories

Independent research has been conducted on this organization's theory of change or on the effectiveness of this organization's program(s)

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Programs

Advocacy & Community Services

The ADVOCACY & COMMUNITY SERVICES PROGRAM serves Somerville residents with incomes up to 175% of the poverty level. Staff speak English, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Spanish. Current projects include:

Homelessness Prevention:collect summons from Somerville District Court, send out letter in four languages informing tenants of availability of assistance, meet with tenants to help prepare Answer and Discovery, negotiate with landlords, schedule building inspections, stand up in court with clients, mediate, and help tenants find safe, sanitary, affordable housing.

Housing and Benefits Advocacy: help low-income residents obtain subsidies and benefits for which they are eligible, to stabilize their current living situation and assist them to strive for economic self-sufficiency.

Income Maximization: CAAS has become home to a satellite of the Welfare Department and a partner of the Fuel Assistance program, so that our clients will be more easily and promptly served.

In 50% of cases, households that were at risk of eviction and homelessness will remain stably housed in their current homes. In an additional 30% of cases, households will gain time and/or financial assistance, allowing them to move to new homes they can afford over the long run.

175 households will apply for SNAP. CAAS will help 72 households to appeal denials or re-apply for SNAP.

Low-income households will continue to live in Somerville, paying rents that are within their budget. They will gain access to public benefits that close the gap between what they have and what they need. Affordable housing will be preserved and expanded through policy advocacy, coalition work, and community organizing.

CAAS creates an annual workplan including measures of short-term success. CAAS reports to the City of Somerville each quarter, and to the Mass. Dept. of Housing & Community Development twice a year. The Board of Directors and management of the agency monitor progress toward the goals set in the workplan.

Examples of Program Success

The doctor said Sandra (not her real name) had a “highly aggressive” tumor on the right side of her brain. She needed chemotherapy every month, and the success of the treatment would depend greatly on her living conditions. But Sandra was living on a couch, in a small apartment she shared with her pregnant sister, her brother-in law, and her teenage niece.

For Sandra, getting an apartment of her own could be a matter of life or death. After she applied for public housing and was denied—twice— she turned to CAAS.

A CAAS Housing & Benefit Advocate appealed to the Somerville Housing Authority. He obtained letters from Sandra’s doctors and nurse proving the lack of suitable housing would be a substantial impediment to treatment or recovery. After reviewing the documentation and arguments submitted, the Executive Director of the Housing Authority overturned the previous decisions and put her on the top of the list. Sandra has now moved into her new apartment.

Head Start

Head Start is a comprehensive developmental preschool program that provides a variety of wrap-around services to approximately 275 low-income children and their families each year. Head Start supports the learning and development of children ages three to five in classrooms located throughout Somerville and Cambridge. Our classrooms prepare children for Kindergarten and success in school and life through a rich curriculum aligned with the Head Start Early Learning Frameworks. We provide each child with health, nutrition, and specialized services; and each family with referrals, parenting support, child development education, volunteer and leadership opportunities, and community building.

18 parents will complete training and 15 will be employed as substitute teachers in CAAS Head Start classrooms.

Program Long-Term Success

High-quality early education provides life-long benefits. A 2012 study by the University of North Carolina found that at age 30, participants in one early ed program were four times more likely to have earned college degrees, five times less likely to have used public assistance, 1-1/2 times more likely to have been consistently employed, and tended to delay parenthood by almost two years compared to the control group, which had not attended a high-quality early education program.

CAAS Head Start received a 100% rating from the U.S. Administration for Children and Families. Children who participate in this program will be more likely to earn college degrees, obtain jobs and be consistently employed, delay parenthood, and be economically self-sufficient.

Parents of children in CAAS Head Start will obtain skills in parenting, computer use, and organizational governance. They will be more likely to get and maintain employment. They and their children will be healthier and eat a more nutritious diet.

Program Success Monitored By

CAAS Head Start uses PROMIS, a client tracking database designed for Head Start programs. Staff enter client data and record case notes, services provided, referrals made, and outcomes achieved. Demographic data from PROMIS is sent to the agency-wide database, Octopia, in real time. This allows staff in different programs to coordinate services to clients.

The Head Start Program uses the Teaching Strategies Gold database to track specific educational outcomes (for students) and professional development milestones (for teachers). The Program reports to the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, and both the CAAS Board and the Head Start Program Policy Council monitor these reports.

Examples of Program Success

The way Fabia Oliveira remembers it, CAAS Head Start helped her choose her career at the age of five

“My teachers influenced me to become a helping individual,” Fabia says. “There was a boy in my class who was having a hard time adjusting to school. Every time he was upset in class, he seemed to respond to my attempts to comfort him. I have pictures of our Head Start graduation where I am helping the children find their place on stage.”

This fall, Fabia returned to CAAS Head Start as a Family Advocate. She, Family Advocate Jasen Souza (also hired this year), and six veteran staff meet the families of students outside the classroom, often in their own homes. Family Advocates help the families find what they need, from free clothing for children to help understanding the health care system. They work with CAAS’ Housing & Benefits Advocates to make sure families can pay rent and utility bills. Over half the staff of CAAS Head Start were once parents of children in the program.

CEO/Executive Director/Board Comments

All services at CAAS are provided in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. CAAS find interpreters of other languages through its subscription to the telephone Language Line. CAAS programs and the CAAS website are accessible for people with many different abilities and disabilities.

Management

J. David Gibbs has been the Executive Director of Community Action Agency of Somerville since September, 2014. David is an attorney with over 20 years of experience in the legal and nonprofit sectors, including serving as the Executive Director of the Cambridge Community Center and, before that, the Family Institute of Cambridge. He earned a law degree from Boston University School of Law and did his undergraduate work at Princeton University and the Rhode Island School of Design. More recently he attended the highly regarded Institute for Non-Profit Management and Leadership at the Boston University School of Management. David served as an attorney at Hemenway & Barnes and Foley, Hoag & Eliot LLP before turning his attention to the management of nonprofit organizations. His volunteer activities include serving as a board member and past president of Tutoring Plus in Cambridge and various citizens committees in Somerville, including the Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative and the LOCUS Union Square Strategy Leaders. He was an active participant in the design and implementation of the TCRC-funded "Somerville Residents' Experience of Gentrification" study in 2016. David and his family live in Somerville. When not working he can often be found dangling on the face of a cliff rock climbing.

Short Term Solvency

Long Term Solvency

CEO/Executive Director/Board Comments

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Foundation Comments

Financial summary data in the charts and graphs above are per the organization's IRS Form 990s.

Documents

Other Documents

No Other Documents currently available.

Impact

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